To the Gold Coast for Gold

First published in 1883, this travel memoir describes the journey into West Africa undertaken by explorers Richard Burton (1821-90) and Verney Lovett Cameron (1844-94) in 1881. The mission for the two men was to assess the mining potential of the west coast, first observed by Burton in a publication that had appeared twenty years earlier. The first few chapters of Volume 1 cover the journey from Trieste to Lisbon, Madeira and Tenerife and on to Africa during the winter of 1881, including descriptions of Mount Atlas and the Canary Islands. Volume 2 describes the journey to Axim and back. The expedition was cut short by the Foreign Office, who feared for the safety of the two explorers. Burton returned to Europe with a large collection of plant and animal specimens, and the pair sent 151 plant species, lists of which are included in the appendices, to Kew Gardens.